Friday, July 26, 2013

Bad 18th Century Laws Not Yet Buried in Louisiana in the 21st Century

“Louisiana embalmers and funeral directors among those
seeking to bury consumers under a mountain of bad laws

“People
of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but
the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some
contrivance to raise prices.”― Adam Smith, from An Inquiry into the Nature
& Causes of the Wealth of Nations

“In Louisiana, it is illegal to sell a casket
unless you are a licensed funeral director. Though making it illegal to sell
what is essentially a fancy box strains credulity, no one had challenged the
law prior to 2007 when, in a move intended to allow themselves to support their
monastery and contemplative life, the monks of St Joseph’s Abbey began
marketing to the public the coffins which they themselves had used for decades.

So what’s the problem with this? In the United
States, the average metal casket costs nearly $2,300. On the other hand, the
monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey sell two models of caskets – one costs $1,500 and
the other costs $2,000. To put it simply, offering families a less inexpensive
burial option allowed grieving families to make an economical and dignified
choice in a time of need and great stress.

When they first announced their intention to
sell caskets on All Saints Day of 2007, the monks did not mean to incur the
wrath of the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors (LSBEFD),
but that is precisely what happened. Slightly more than a month later, they
received a cease-and-desist letter promising a number of dire penalties
including fines and prison time. This was followed by a formal complaint filed
by Boyd L. Mothe, Jr., the owner of several funeral homes in the West Bank area
of New Orleans, that stated in part, ‘Illegal third party casket sales place
funeral homes in an unfavorable position with families. They are quick to
become defensive and threatening when they cannot get what they want.’ In other
words, families become upset when they are forced to purchase a product they
don’t want at a price they often can’t afford.

Over the next several years, the monks tried to
change the laws.

After funeral directors showed up en masse, none
of their proposed reforms even made it out legislative committee. In 2010, the
Institute for Justice came to the aid of the monks and helped them to begin
fighting back against those who would destroy their business in order to protect
their own bottom lines”.